SHAFAQNA- Defending its Islamic etiquette and culture, Turkey has frowned against the ban on Islamic hijab in the European Wushu tournaments, withdrawing the country’s Wushu athletes from the international competition.

“In 2014, we did not take along women athletes from Turkey to the championship, but this year we have decided not to attend the event itself,” Abdurrahman Akyuz, Turkish official of the International Wushu Federation, told The Anadolu Agency.

Akyuz emphasised that the decision was made to protest the European Wushu Federation new rules banning sportswomen wearing hijab from taking part in the competition.

“We, as Turkey, do not recognize the European Wushu Federation anymore and declared it to the International Wushu Federation,” he added.

Also, he said that Italy and France too had decided to stay out of the European Wushu Federation over what it said was “maladministration” reasons.

The wushu competition has a bad memory for Turkish Muslim athletes.

In 2013, Akyuz’s daughter and Turkey’s national athlete, Zeynep Akyuz, did not get any score when she performed at the competition wearing a headscarf.

The federation had said the girl’s costume did not conform to the federation’s rules. “There are clear and strict rules about different kinds of competition costume and its parts,” it said.

In response, Zeynep Akyuz had said that the European Wushu Federation’s decision to ban women who wore headscarves was “disrespectful” to the Islamic world.

In addition, World Champion Alif Akyuz called the decision “shameful” for Turkish society and Islamic world.

A senior official of Turkey’s Wushu Federation said on Wednesday that “Turkey will not participate in any event organized by the European Wushu Federation because of its alleged ban on women wearing headscarves.’

Wushu is a martial arts form that originated in China.

Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations.